A Market Experiment on Trade Promotion Budget and Allocation

We design a market experiment to examine how firm size and ability to choose trade promotion types influence trade promotion budget, its allocation and channel profits. Our experimental results show that larger manufacturers offer smaller trade promotion budgets. Manufacturers with ability to influence the allocation decision favor scan-backs while retailers favor off-invoices. Trade promotion decisions affect profit sharing within the channel but not total channel profit. We validate these findings with an econometric analysis of survey data from supermarket executives. Overall, our results suggest that market experiments can shed light on trade promotion outcomes for which industry data are sparse.trade promotion, market experiments, Marketing,

MicroRNAs in B cell development and malignancy

MicroRNAs are small RNA molecules that regulate gene expression and play critical roles in B cell development and malignancy. miRNA expression is important globally, as B cell specific knockouts of Dicer show profound defects in B cell development; and is also critical at the level of specific miRNAs. In this review, we discuss miRNAs that are involved in normal B cell development in the bone marrow and during B cell activation and terminal differentiation in the periphery. Next, we turn to miRNAs that are dysregulated during diseases of B cells, including malignant diseases and autoimmunity. Further study of miRNAs and their targets will lead to a better understanding of B cell development, and should also lead to the development of novel therapeutic strategies against B cell diseases

R-PEKS: RBAC Enabled PEKS for Secure Access of Cloud Data

In the recent past, few works have been done by combining attribute-based access control with multi-user PEKS, i.e., public key encryption with keyword search. Such attribute enabled searchable encryption is most suitable for applications where the changing of privileges is done once in a while. However, to date, no efficient and secure scheme is available in the literature that is suitable for these applications where changing privileges are done frequently. In this paper our contributions are twofold. Firstly, we propose a new PEKS scheme for string search, which, unlike the previous constructions, is free from bi-linear mapping and is efficient by 97% compared to PEKS for string search proposed by Ray et.al in TrustCom 2017. Secondly, we introduce role based access control (RBAC) to multi-user PEKS, where an arbitrary group of users can search and access the encrypted files depending upon roles. We termed this integrated scheme as R-PEKS. The efficiency of R-PEKS over the PEKS scheme is up to 90%. We provide formal security proofs for the different components of R-PEKS and validate these schemes using a commercial dataset

Diffuse Neutron Scattering Study of Magnetic Correlations in half-doped La0.5Ca0.5-xSrxMnO3 (x = 0.1, 0.3 and 0.4) Manganites

The short range ordered magnetic correlations have been studied in half doped La0.5Ca0.5-xSrxMnO3 (x = 0.1, 0.3 and 0.4) compounds by polarized neutron scattering technique. On doping Sr2+ for Ca2+ ion, these compounds with x = 0.1, 0.3, and 0.4 exhibit CE-type, mixture of CE-type and A-type, and A-type antiferromagnetic ordering, respectively. Magnetic diffuse scattering is observed in all the compounds above and below their respective magnetic ordering temperatures and is attributed to magnetic polarons. The correlations are primarily ferromagnetic in nature above T\_N, although a small antiferromagnetic contribution is also evident. Additionally, in samples x = 0.1 and 0.3 with CE-type antiferromagnetic ordering, superlattice diffuse reflections are observed indicating correlations between magnetic polarons. On lowering temperature below T\_N the diffuse scattering corresponding to ferromagnetic correlations is suppressed and the long range ordered antiferromagnetic state is established. However, the short range ordered correlations indicated by enhanced spin flip scattering at low Q coexist with long range ordered state down to 3K. In x = 0.4 sample with A-type antiferromagnetic ordering, superlattice diffuse reflections are absent. Additionally, in comparison to x = 0.1 and 0.3 sample, the enhanced spin flip scattering at low Q is reduced at 310K, and as temperature is reduced below 200K, it becomes negligibly low. The variation of radial correlation function, g(r) with temperature indicates rapid suppression of ferromagnetic correlations at the first nearest neighbor on approaching TN. Sample x = 0.4 exhibits growth of ferromagnetic phase at intermediate temperatures (~ 200K). This has been further explored using SANS and neutron depolarization techniques.Comment: 13 pages, 12 figures, To appear in Physical Review

Detection of a Series of X-ray Dips Associated with a Radio Flare in GRS 1915+105

We report the detection of a series of X-ray dips in the Galactic black hole candidate GRS 1915+105 during 1999 June 6-17 from observations carried out with the Pointed Proportional Counters of the Indian X-ray Astronomy Experiment on board the Indian satellite IRS-P3. The observations were made after the source made a transition from a steady low-hard state to a chaotic state which occuered within a few hours. Dips of about 20-160 seconds duration are observed on most of the days. The X-ray emission outside the dips shows a QPO at ~ 4 Hz which has characteristics similar to the ubiquitous 0.5 - 10 Hz QPO seen during the low-hard state of the source. During the onset of dips this QPO is absent and also the energy spectrum is soft and the variability is low compared to the non-dip periods. These features gradually re-appear as the dip recovers. The onset of the occurrence of a large number of such dips followed the start of a huge radio flare of strength 0.48 Jy (at 2.25 GHz). We interpret these dips as the cause for mass ejection due to the evacuation of matter from an accretion disk around the black hole. We propose that a super-position of a large number of such dip events produces a huge radio jet in GRS 1915+105.Comment: 18 pages, 7 figures, Accepted for publication in Ap

Magnetic and electron transport properties of the rare-earth cobaltates, La0.7-xLnxCa0.3CoO3 (Ln = Pr, Nd, Gd and Dy) : A case of phase separation

Magnetic and electrical properties of four series of rare earth cobaltates of the formula La0.7-xLnxCa0.3CoO3 with Ln = Pr, Nd, Gd and Dy have been investigated. Compositions close to x = 0.0 contain large ferromagnetic clusters or domains, and show Brillouin-like behaviour of the field-cooled DC magnetization data with fairly high ferromagnetic Tc values, besides low electrical resistivities with near-zero temperature coefficients. The zero-field-cooled data generally show a non-monotonic behaviour with a peak at a temperatures slightly lower than Tc. The near x = 0.0 compositions show a prominent peak corresponding to the Tc in the AC-susceptibility data. The ferromagnetic Tc varies linearly with x or the average radius of the A-site cations, (rA). With increase in x or decrease in (rA), the magnetization value at any given temperature decreases markedly and the AC-susceptibility measurements show a prominent transition arising from small magnetic clusters with some characteristics of a spin-glass. Electrical resistivity increases with increase in x, showed a significant increase around a critical value of x or (rA), at which composition the small clusters also begin to dominate. These properties can be understood in terms of a phase separation scenario wherein large magnetic clusters give way to smaller ones with increase in x, with both types of clusters being present in certain compositions. The changes in magnetic and electrical properties occur parallely since the large ferromagnetic clusters are hole-rich and the small clusters are hole-poor. Variable-range hopping seems to occur at low temperatures in these cobaltates.Comment: 23 pages including figure

Connection between accretion disk and superluminal radio jets and the role of radio plateau state in GRS 1915+105

We investigate the association between the accretion disk during radio plateau state and the following superluminal relativistic radio jets with peak intensity varies from 200 mJy to 1000 mJy observed over a period of five years and present the evidences of direct accretion disc-jet connection in microquasar GRS 1915+105. We have analysed RXTE PCA/HEXTE X-ray data and have found that the accretion rate, $\dot{m}_{accr}$, as inferred from the X-ray flux, is very high during the radio plateaux. We suggest that the accretion disk during the radio plateaux always associated with radiation-driven wind which is manifested in the form of enhanced absorption column density for X-ray and the depleted IR emission. We find that the wind density increases with the accretion disk luminosity during the radio plateaux. The wind density is similar to the density of the warm absorber proposed in extragalactic AGNs and Quasars. We suggest a simple model for the origin of superluminal relativistic jets. Finally, We discuss the implications of this work for galactic microquasars and the extragalactic AGNs and Quasars.Comment: 9 pages, 6 Figures, Accepted for publication in Ap